Advertisers have finally begun to consider search retargeting as a way to increase accuracy when targeting ads. They're still not ecstatic about the increase in price, compared with serving up plain old ads, but how can they ignore talk of campaigns that begin with $168 cost per acquisition and fall to $29, and .93% conversion rates that rise to 6.93% within one month? Consider how Yahoo's retargeting platform helped Value City Furniture, whose parent company, American Signature, is reportedly ranked as one of the largest furniture retailers in the country. Value City Furniture decided to launch a promotional sweepstakes that gave away six $2,500 shopping sprees during the fourth quarter of 2009. When customers responded to the promotion, Value City Furniture captured data that allowed it to prescreen applicants for its private-label credit card offering. It also used the data to retarget visitors who engaged with the ad but didn't convert. The goal to increase registrations for pre-approved Value City Furniture credit applications and in-store sales through its online channel led the retailer to tap Yahoo's My Display Ads for a retargeting and sponsored search campaign. The company saw its site and sweepstakes registrations increase by 650%. Value City Furniture had a 5% conversion rate, with a CPA of $32, when the campaign began. After one month, the company had a 14.5% conversion rate and a CPA of just $12. Yahoo and Value City Furniture developed a Sponsored Search campaign that included 200 branded keywords to help promote the sweepstakes and its overall business. The campaign found display drove search activity, with a 168% increase in branded term searches. As a result, the company increased its display budget by 30%. "It's becoming easier for advertisers to take a data set and activate it against all inventory in the company's target markets," says David Zinman, vice president and general manager for display advertising at Yahoo. Cycle back to 2006, when Zinman offered retargeting at Blue Lithium and advertisers had to approach each online ad network, pull a pixel, and hope it could cover the majority of the ad impressions online. It's much easier to ensure coverage today, he says. That assurance has prompted more than Value City Furniture into retargeting and search retargeting. Companies such as Travelocity have also jumped into the fray. "Marketing to people who have already been to your site is a very effective form of advertising and driving conversion," Zinman says. "There's really not resurgence, it's just always been up and to the right on the chart for money spent on retargeting." Yahoo added search retargeting in 2009, but began to push it into the marketplace in January 2010. It allows Yahoo's engine to target everyone who searches on relevant keywords and then targets them with display advertising. Google's AdWords and the startup Magnetic also offer this service. Yahoo moved toward offering clients retargeting with the acquisition of Blue Lithium in October 2007, but tweaked the technology in February 2009, adding search retargeting and dynamic ads. "Search retargeting has a lot of potential and growth ahead of it, mainly because it's so new," Zinman says.